Q: When I recently visited the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center, I noticed a time capsule cemented into the building dated July 4, 1990, with a date to be opened of July 4, 2040. What is in the capsule and what is significant about the opening date, other than it is 50 years?
—Susie Matthews, Duluth
A: Halfway through the life of the time capsule, most folks have forgotten what went into the container.
Lillian Webb, who was commission chairwoman when the Gwinnett County Justice and Administration Center was built in 1988, recalls that a newspaper column, paper money and coins went in, but is hazy on the rest.
Fortunately, a 1998 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article filled in some of the blanks.
The stainless steel box contains a myriad of items, from an “I love Gwinnett” bumper sticker to a Boy Scouts of America handbook.
Some of the time capsule contents are like something you’d find in a dusty old box in your attic.
There’s a restaurant menu, a video from the Gwinnett County Veterans Council, a fifth-grade drawing of the GJAC, a picture of the county’s historic courthouse, histories of several Gwinnett cities and a key chain from the center’s dedication.
Like Webb said, there are newspapers, in addition to newsletters from several Gwinnett organizations and even a mystery envelope from Sugar Hill.
“Everything we got, we accepted —- there was room,” time capsule organizer Donna Sisley said in the old article. “If they wanted to participate, we put it in there.”
Sisley was prophetic when, according to the 1998 article, she placed a videotape in the time capsule and thought: “Gosh, that will probably be so obsolete (in 2040), we won’t know how that will work.”
Webb said GJAC was built with the first round of special-purpose local-option sales tax allowed under Georgia law, and it wasn’t a sure thing that the referendum would pass.
“When we first proposed using the SPLOST money, it was new and people didn’t understand it. I’d drive all over the county, and when we’d see three or four people gathered, I’d stop and tell them what the SPLOST could do for us,” Webb said.
The county didn’t even have use for GJAC’s third floor when it opened.
“Some of the critics called it a white elephant – which also let them make fun of me for being a Republican,” Webb said. “That third floor was empty. Of course, it filled up fast.”
Gwinnett County’s population has grown from 357,000 in 1990 to an estimated 878,000 in 2014.
And one time capsule.
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